Colin Turkington: “I didn’t leave much out there”

A delighted Colin Turkington said he didn’t leave any performance out on track after setting a searing pace on the way to pole position at Croft.

Turkington was untouchable in qualifying despite carrying maximum success ballast, finishing 0.370s faster than nearest rival Jason Plato, and more than 0.7s faster than team-mate Rob Collard.

The championship leader said he was able to make improvements to the BMW 125i throughout the day, including while the pressure was on in qualifying.

Speaking to TouringCarTimes, Turkington said: “We’ve obviously carried over the performance from Oulton Park. The car was fast out of the box this morning, but the running in free practice was a bit stop-start, so we’ve still been improving it.

“Even through qualifying we improved the car from run one to run two, so I got a really strong lap in and I didn’t leave much out there.

“Whenever you’ve got the car working so well like that, it makes my job a lot easier. I’ve given myself the best chance for tomorrow, but one step at a time.”

The 2009 champion was also keen to play down the effect of carrying maximum success ballast, pointing to his performance with weight on at the last round.

He said: “People have been talking about the weight, but whenever you have the car in a good balance, when you put the weight on it’s not such a problem.

“We’ve seen at Oulton Park when we put the weight on in race two, it made the car handle even better, and the car went even faster. You can use the weight to your advantage because it can help settle the car down.”

Sunday’s first race will be the first time the BMW’s longer first gear will be tested in a competitive situation, following the rule change imposed after Oulton Park.

Assessing the difference it will make, Turkington said: “We just have to wait and see. We practised our starts in shakedown and it has taken the edge off us a bit, for sure. You don’t really know until you’re in a competitive environment what exactly has happened. But starting on pole you’re not as reliant on the start.”